The Comic Haul

My last comic haul post was about a month ago, so I figured it was time for another.

There has been quite a mix of books on my bedside table over the last 30
days, some new, some not-so-new. We'll start off with...

Annihilation Conquest: Starlord #2 - Giffen's still phoning it in with this mini-series but that's not really as bad as it sounds. This is all stuff we've seen before but Keith keeps it pretty lively with somewhat interesting characters who don't get along too well with each other and the artwork by Timothy Green is out of this world. There's an interesting contrast between the atypicalline work (which feels more European than American) and the cliché guys who don't like each other try to achieve the impossible hero story. I look forward to issue #3.

Giant-Size Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #1 - Fun fun fun fun fun fun! Although I am a big fan of Jeff Parker, I am not a great fan of Parker's
Marvel Adventures: Avengers run. Maybe it's the curmudgeonly old continuity troll in me having difficulty with Storm,Wolvie and Spider-Man on the team, or maybe it's just not my cup of tea. Still, team these guys up with the cast of my absolute favourite Marvel book of last year and you have a winner. The story is essentially a
What If...with Kang duping the Agents into freeing Captain America from the ice several years too early, thus changing history and allowing Kang to conquer the past. I'm going to scurry off to my LCS and nab the Spider-Man Family with the Agents. There is just not enough of these guys on the market.

Danger Girl: Back in Black #1 - I know this mini is a couple of years old, but I did say there was an odd mix on my nightstand, didn't I? Anyway, I really enjoyed the original Danger Girl series back in the day so when I found this in the dollar bins at myLCS I thought, what the heck, try it out. Nick Bradshaw is a great artist but he's still finding his way here, I think. The work he does on this issue is a little clumsy, which seems to match the writing of Andy Hartnell which fails to capture the spirit of fun that I remember from the Cliffhanger days. It may be due to the absence of Campbell but I don't know how much he contributed to the writing of the original series so I can't say for sure. The story seems like a venue for a lot of pointless cheesecake but lacking the tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that made such a ridiculous concept work so well. I have a few more of these on the unread pile so my opinion may change as the story progresses, but I doubt it.

Batman: Dark Victory - I liked this story much more than I did "The Long Halloween" partly because it didn't seem quite as locked in to a format as the holiday themed issues of its predecessor, and partly because I found the mystery far more compelling than simply, "Who is Holiday?" I did find the big extravaganza ending a little much, but the overall feeling about the book was definitely a positive one. Some of the better Batman stuff I've read in a while.




Ultimate Fantastic Four #45 - Definitely a step in the right direction as the Four go from doing absolutely nothing to doing something. I'm actually embarrassed to say that I never picked up on the bad guy as being Psycho Man. I think with the Surfer connection, and my relative unfamiliarity with the Ultimate universe outside of the FF and Spidey, I just assumed that this was a Galactus re-imagining. I like it much better knowing that it couldn't be farther
from the truth. It also makes me think I should maybe go back and reread the previous issue seeing as how it may have an entirely new spin on it now. At the very least, I am still enjoying this story and I'm looking forward to how it's going to end. That, and to see what Carey has up his sleeves for the next arc (not being tied into the
'must-have-a-Surfer-story' because of the movie and all).

JLA: World War III - I know the idea here was to have
Morrison go out with the biggest bang possible but all he really managed to accomplish with this storyline was 6 or 7 issues of total gobbledygook. It was no mystery that Morrison was taking the 'widescreen' approach with this book and he was playing to the fact that these are the Earth's mightiest heroes from the very beginning, but he was always able to tether these crazy ideas and epic battles to something real. The first story with the white martians ("New World Order") was
entertaining, the recruitment drive was entertaining, ConnorHawke running around the Watchtower fighting the Key with his dad's old trick arrows, pretty much everything right up to the World War III story had some balance and was fun on some level.

Not so much here.

And I don't even want to talk about the 'artistic contribution' by Howard Porter.

I guess if one is to look at the bright side of things, it did help with the overall transition to Waid as writer, although the darker tone of his run is something to be discussed at another time.

That's it for tonight. I should be back with some thoughts on Umbrella Academy #1, the new issue of The Flash and some other stuff.

Onwards and upwards!

mike